The Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on mental health
25 February 2022
The Department of Psychology and Human Development’s work on mental health covers a wide range of groups and settings.

In this episode we learn about its very recent work on the ways in which the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted mental health across the generations, but also specifically children with special educational needs and research students in universities, and the factors that may have exacerbated and helped reduce this impact.
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Panellists
- Dr Jo Van Herwegen
Dr Jo Van Herwegen, is an associate professor in developmental psychology and education and director of the Child Development and Learning Difficulties lab. Her research focuses on improving educational outcomes, using evidence from developmental psychology, neuroscience, and neurodevelopmental disorders. Concentrating on language, social, and number development, she examines individual differences and what cognitive abilities and strategies relate to successful performance in order to aid the development of educational training programmes. View Dr Jo Van Herwegen's research profile.
- Dr Maria Kambouri
Dr Maria Kambouri is an Associate Professor in Psychology and Education. Maria’s research examines the use of ICT in educational settings focusing on computer-based assessment, digital and online games, specific uses in adult literacy, language, numeracy, and inclusion. This encompasses the development of teachers’ skills to use ICTs in the classroom, as well as the creation of innovative pedagogies. Maria has been the Departmental Graduate Tutor for many years and in that capacity has also been researching doctoral students' wellbeing and mental health in higher education and emphasising supervision skills. View Dr Maria Kambouri's research profile.
- Dr Bonamy Oliver
Bonamy is a developmental psychologist and behavioural geneticist, with research interests in children’s socio-emotional development, psychological adjustment and mental health, with specific emphasis on the role of family, school and the connections between them. View Dr Bonamy Oliver's research profile.
- Dr Keri Wong
Keri is a developmental psychologist and criminologist. Her research focuses on the developmental causes and consequences of crime and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and the design of culturally appropriate assessments for youth mental health symptoms. Keri is currently leading on four covid projects, looking at its impact on mental health. View Dr Keri Wong's research profile.
Links
- Better Together: a wellbeing initiative for doctoral students
- How Families with Children with Special Needs are coping with the COVID-19 Pandemic: An International Online Study
- Child Development and Learning Difficulties Lab
- COVID-19: Global study of social trust and mental health project website
- COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Evidence submitted to UK Select Committee on children and young people’s mental health by IOE
- COVID-19 vaccine coverage and targeted interventions to improve vaccination uptake
- COVID-19: Global social trust and mental health
- IOE120: Psyched about Education podcast series